Chapter 6 - Forty-Eight Hours
The scream came from upstairs.
Kathleen.
Maeve ran before Marco could stop her.
They reached the guest room.
Empty.
The bed overturned.
Window closed.
No Kathleen.
On the mirror, written in red lipstick:
48 HOURS.
Maeve checked the clock.
7:03 a.m.
Exactly forty-eight hours since she entered Falcone Manor.
Marco stood behind her.
"He planned this."
"Vittorio?"
"Or whoever is inside."
Maeve touched the mirror.
The lipstick was fresh.
Luca searched the bathroom.
Dante checked hallway footage.
Nothing.
All cameras had looped for exactly four minutes.
Maeve stared at the empty room.
Her mother had disappeared again.
This time Maeve refused to lose her.
A phone rang.
The cheap burner from the kitchen.
Dante had sealed it inside an evidence bag.
Yet now it sat on Kathleen's pillow.
Ringing.
Marco answered on speaker.
Vittorio's voice.
"Congratulations, Maeve. You lasted forty-eight hours."
Maeve's hands curled.
"Where is she?"
"Alive."
"I want proof."
A pause.
Kathleen's voice came through.
"Maeve, don't—"
The line cut.
Maeve lunged toward the phone.
"Mom!"
Vittorio returned.
"Bring me the original ledger."
Marco said, "No."
Vittorio laughed.
"Still predictable."
Maeve looked at Marco.
"When?"
"Maeve."
She ignored him.
"When?"
"One hour. Old Falcone warehouse at Pier Nine."
The call ended.
Marco immediately said, "You're not going."
"Yes, I am."
"No."
Maeve slammed her palm on the dresser.
"Stop deciding whether I'm allowed to rescue my own mother."
"We don't trade evidence for hostages."
"Then find another plan."
Dante said, "We can copy the ledger."
Marco shook his head.
"He'll inspect it."
Maeve looked at the book.
"Then give him the original."
Luca stared.
"That ledger can put him away."
"Dante already scanned it."
"Chain of custody."
Maeve said, "My mother is not chain of custody."
Marco met her eyes.
Then nodded once.
"We trade."
They prepared.
Tracker inside the ledger spine.
Federal agents alerted.
Luca positioned teams near the warehouse.
Dante monitored cameras.
Maeve insisted on carrying the ledger.
Marco rode beside her.
"You stay behind me."
"Sure."
"I mean it."
"So do I."
He looked at her.
"You're lying."
"Obviously."
At Pier Nine, the warehouse doors were open.
Maeve entered with Marco.
Luca and Dante remained outside.
Vittorio stood beneath hanging industrial lights.
Kathleen sat tied to a chair.
Samuel Reed stood beside her.
Alive.
Maeve stared.
Samuel lowered his eyes.
"You."
He said, "I'm sorry."
Marco's voice went deadly.
"You worked for my father twenty years."
Samuel swallowed.
"I worked for Vittorio first."
Maeve finally understood.
The manager controlled staff hiring.
Keys.
Schedules.
Security access.
Samuel had brought her into the manor.
"Why me?" she asked.
Samuel looked at Vittorio.
Vittorio answered.
"Because Patrick left more than a ledger."
"What else?"
Vittorio smiled.
"You."
Maeve stared.
He continued.
"Your father created an encrypted archive. Password unknown. He told Antonio only Maeve could open it."
"I was three."
"Exactly."
Maeve thought about childhood.
Recipes.
Songs.
Nicknames.
Something Patrick assumed she would remember.
"I don't know any password."
"You will."
Marco held the ledger.
"Release Kathleen."
Vittorio nodded.
Samuel untied her.
Kathleen stood.
Maeve moved forward.
Vittorio raised a hand.
"Ledger first."
Marco tossed it.
Samuel caught it.
Vittorio inspected the cover.
Then smiled.
"Good."
Kathleen moved toward Maeve.
Halfway across the floor, Vittorio said, "Stop."
Kathleen froze.
"One more thing."
Marco's jaw clenched.
"We had a deal."
"I changed it."
Maeve looked at the doors.
Still no agents.
Something wrong.
Vittorio's smile returned.
"You really thought I didn't know about the federal task force?"
Marco's expression changed.
Vittorio pointed toward the ceiling.
"Your friend Agent Collins has been on my payroll for twelve years."
Maeve's stomach dropped.
Outside, gunfire erupted.
Marco grabbed Maeve.
Lights exploded.
Kathleen dropped.
Samuel ran.
Chaos.
Marco pulled Maeve behind machinery.
"Stay down."
She crawled toward Kathleen.
"Maeve!"
She reached her mother.
Kathleen was unharmed.
They moved behind crates.
Luca burst through a side entrance.
Dante behind him.
"Federal team compromised!" Luca shouted.
Marco fired back toward Vittorio's men.
Maeve stayed low.
Samuel appeared near them.
Maeve flinched.
He raised both hands.
"I'm helping."
"Why?"
"He'll kill everyone."
"That didn't bother you yesterday?"
Samuel looked ashamed.
"He wasn't supposed to hurt Kathleen."
Maeve almost laughed.
"Wonderful moral line."
Samuel handed her a flash drive.
"What is this?"
"Elena's files."
Maeve froze.
"She gave them to me before she disappeared."
"You had them?"
"I was supposed to destroy them."
"But?"
"I couldn't."
Vittorio shouted from across the warehouse.
"Samuel!"
Samuel went pale.
"Go."
Marco dragged Maeve toward an exit.
Kathleen followed.
Luca covered them.
Dante drove.
They escaped as police sirens approached.
Not federal agents.
Local police contacted by Luca's lawyer.
In the car, Maeve clutched the drive.
"Samuel stayed."
Marco looked grim.
"He chose his side."
Back at the manor, Dante opened the files on an isolated computer.
Hundreds of documents.
Photos.
Audio recordings.
One video.
ELENA_FINAL.
Maeve clicked.
Elena appeared on-screen.
Tired.
Afraid.
"If you're watching this, then I probably didn't make it."
Maeve covered her mouth.
Elena continued.
"Kathleen, I'm sorry. Maeve, if you're old enough to see this, your father was right. The archive exists."
Dante leaned closer.
"The password?"
Elena looked directly into the camera.
"Patrick said Maeve would know because it was the first thing he ever taught her to make."
Maeve went still.
She remembered almost nothing about Patrick.
Except one sensation.
Standing on a chair.
Tiny hands covered in flour.
A man's voice laughing.
He had taught her to make—
"Biscuits."
Dante typed BISCUITS.
Rejected.
Maeve frowned.
"No. He called them something."
Kathleen whispered, "Sunday clouds."
Maeve remembered.
"Sunday Clouds."
Dante typed SUNDAYCLOUDS.
The archive opened.
Inside were bank records.
Videos.
Names.
Enough evidence to destroy Vittorio's network.
Then Dante clicked one final file.
A photograph opened.
Vittorio standing beside someone at Falcone Manor.
Recent.
Maeve leaned closer.
Her blood ran cold.
The person beside Vittorio was Agent Collins.
But there was someone else in the background.
A Falcone brother.
Luca stared.
Marco stepped closer.
Dante stopped breathing.
May you like
Because the man in the photograph looked exactly like Marco.
And the timestamp was from the previous night.
